The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project is a university-chartered research center
associated with the Department of History of The George Washington University

Federal Project Number One

Known
as "Federal One" for short, Federal Project Number One
was created in 1935 as a subdivision of the Works Progress
Administration (WPA)
that sought to extend the relief of the New Deal to artists,
actors, writers, and musicians. Although the arts had
never
been high on FDR's list of priorities, he felt funding
them would provide a double benefit. Not only would it
put legions
of unemployed artists back to work, but their creations
would invariably entertain and enrich the larger population.
If FDR was only lukewarm about Federal One, however, his
wife more than made up for it with her enthusiasm. Eleanor
Roosevelt felt strongly that American society had not done
enough to support the arts, and she viewed Federal One
as
a powerful tool with which to infuse art and culture into
the daily lives of Americans. ER lent her wholehearted
support
to the creation of the Federal One programs, lobbied FDR
to sign the executive order creating them, praised the
projects
in her columns and speeches, and defended them against
congressional critics. ER felt particularly attached
to Federal One's Federal
Theatre Project and she delighted in the artistic work
that she saw being crafted with federal dollars.

Not surprisingly, Federal Project Number One was a popular
target of the New Deal's reactionary opponents in Congress.
Martin Dies, the cantankerous chairman of the House Committee
on Un-American Activities, detested Number One with particular
intensity and sought to use his power as chairman to expose
Communist subversion within the organization. Along with
his conservative allies in the House and Senate, Dies had
successfully pressured the White House to scale back Number
One by the late 1930s. The first program to go was ER's
beloved Federal Theatre Project, which Congress dissolved
in June 1939. This was quickly followed with budget cuts
for the Federal Writer's Project, the Federal Music Project,
and the Federal Art Project. By the end of 1942 these programs
had virtually been legislated away and in June 1943 they
officially ceased to exist with the WPA's dissolution.

Sources:

Black, Allida M. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt
and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1996, 33-36.